Crime

Man found guilty in wife's 1979 slaying in NY cemetery

/ AP

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A 60-year-old western New York man has been found guilty in the stabbing death of his estranged wife in 1979.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says an Erie County Court jury found Michael Rodriguez of Buffalo guilty of second-degree murder after three hours of deliberations.

The body of his wife, 21-year-old Patricia Rodriguez, was found in a Lackawanna cemetery on Good Friday in April 1979. Police say she had been stabbed more than 100 times.

Michael Rodriguez was indicted in November 2013 after state police reopened the unsolved case in 2009 at the request of Lackawanna's police chief. Investigators used scientific technology that didn't exist at the time of the slaying to re-examine forensic evidence found at the cemetery.

He faces life in prison.

First published on October 24, 2014 / 5:37 PM EDT

AP

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